Council to protect 3500 more homes under character preservation plan

The Coorparoo and Districts Draft Neighbourhood Plan to be discussed at Tuesday's council meeting looks drastically different to the strategy released last year.

The plan explores the future of the south-east suburbs of Coorparoo, Greenslopes, Camp Hill, Holland Park and Holland Park West.

City Planning chairman Julian Simmonds said the new plan brought increased protection to character residential areas, with 5998 properties placed in a character residential zone - 3555 more than the strategy proposed.

Any development involving properties within the council's character residential zone will face stricter rules.

The strategy plan released in October 2016, removed several homes from the traditional building character overlay.

"Feedback from 170 written submissions and 400 online survey responses to our draft strategy, as well as feedback from our information kiosks and speaking directly one-on-one with residents, was used to develop the draft neighbourhood plan," Cr Simmonds said.

"An extensive survey of local character buildings and review of suggestions provided by the community have been used to designate character protection areas and retain intact character streetscapes across the plan area.

"Additionally, an extra 13 houses will be included in the pre-1911 building overlay and 11 heritage places will be added to council's heritage register."

Property Council Queensland executive director Chris Mountford said protecting local character in middle ring suburbs while providing housing diversity was a critical challenge facing council, industry and the community.

"We know that increasing the supply and providing greater diversity in the type of housing available is a major challenge facing all levels of government," Mr Mountford said.

"We need to ensure there is affordable and suitable housing for seniors, families, young people and people with specific needs in every community.

"The state government's recently released South East Queensland Regional Plan highlights this challenge when it refers to the need to unlock the 'missing middle' housing type.

"There is no doubt from our perspective that a degree of flexibility needs to be a key ingredient to any neighbourhood plans for middle ring areas to achieve this balance."

Any development on such a site must protect the existing dwelling built in 1946 or before while allowing new one- or two-storey dwellings to be built in the character zone precinct.

Key changes between strategy and draft plan:

• Not proceeding with medium density proposals in some areas in Greenslopes and Holland Park, including Denman Street

Increasing the number of properties to be included in the character residential zone, particularly in Camp Hill and Greenslopes

Reviewing the zoning applied adjacent to centres to allow a better transition between higher intensity to lower intensity built form

The draft neighbourhood plan will be reviewed by the Queensland government ahead of a public notification and submissions period expected later in 2017.